XDC 2012: Nuremberg, Germany.

[Luc Verhaegen]

On Wed, Sep 14, 2011 at 12:30:07AM +0200, Luc Verhaegen wrote:
> Egbert Eich, Matthias Hopf and I stuck our heads together a month or so 
> ago and thought: we can do the next XDC in nuremberg! And so, to 
> continue the good tradition started by Michael last year; during the 
> current conference, we would already like to propose the next one, and 
> we would like to propose Nuremberg in Germany.
> 
> I just presented this here at XDC Chicago and the slides are available 
> at: http://people.freedesktop.org/~libv/X_conferences_2012.pdf
> 
> The City: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg
> 
> In the northern part of Bavaria, Nuremberg is a city with a rich and 
> diverse history (not always positive:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuremberg_Rally), and the way it got 
> rebuilt after the war makes it very beautiful, and despite, the rebuild, 
> not at all fake like Bruges (says a belgian).
> 
> Nuremberg is large for a european city, everything you can possibly 
> want, you can find there. But while it is large, it is also not too 
> large, it has no issues with safety (unlike Brussels for instance). 
> Nuremberg is also far enough inland to usually have good weather in 
> summer and even september.
> 
> While the english of most germans is not stellar (my theory: the use of
> overdubbing instead of subtitles), it is usually quite ok, and everybody 
> is willing to help foreigners (unlike brussels again :)). But for 
> instance the metro from the airport has stops repeated in english.
> 
> Nuremberg is of course in Bavaria (actually Frankonia) and therefor has 
> plenty of beergartens, restaurants and bars. Beergartens can easily 
> handle very big groups of people, and provide good food and drinks at 
> very affordable prices, but Nuremberg gastronomy is of course not 
> limited to beergartens, there is something for everyone there.
> 
> Travel to Nuremberg is easy (check the map in the slides). Nuremberg is 
> a 30 minute flight away from either Frankfurt (huge european and 
> international hub), or Munich (big european hub). Alternatively, for 
> those who do not want to waste too much time on airports, one can take 
> the ICE from frankfurt straight to Nuremberg in comfort (the time spent 
> on the train is about 2.5h - not that much more than the time spent 
> boarding/taxying/flying/taxying/disembarking).
> 
> Travel inside Nuremberg is also easy: there is excellent public 
> transport, where one ticket serves all (unlike my experiences in the 
> UK). The Nuremberg airport has a direct metro connection to the inner 
> city (~10-15 minutes). The main railwaystation is just across the street 
> from the inner city. And the city is crossed with metro (u-bahn) and 
> tram (strassenbahn) lines.
> 
> Hotelwise, there is probably something for every budget, and this in the
> direct vicinity of the inner city (check the slides, there is a map 
> there). If you cannot find a hotel for 50-100EUR (~ x 1.3 -> usd) within 200 
> meters of the inner city, we either chose a really bad time (really big 
> conference takes place at exactly the same time) or you are doing 
> something wrong :)
> 
> The inner city (within the city walls) is about 1km from east to 
> west, and 1.5km from north to south. Mostly, you do not even need public 
> transportation to get around, a 10 minute walk usually suffices.
> 
> The actual venue still needs to be decided. If Egbert can convince SuSE 
> to give us their big conference room for 3 days. This might give us a 
> nice room, tables, chairs, projector, good power, and networking for 
> free, and this right outside the northern city wall (400m from a metro 
> station, right next to a tram station). Failing that, Matthias might be 
> able to organise something with his university. In the highly unlikely 
> case of both of those not working out, we should have an easy time 
> finding an alternative.
> 
> And finally, there are three organisers. Matthias, Egbert and myself 
> (and two of us are local -- even living just 50m outside the city wall). 
> As the most extreme example, if one of us gets run over by a bus, the 
> event will continue. But more positively, the load can be easily spread, 
> and the event can get well planned through and organised.
> 
> One extra thought: for me, as a belgian (read: not ashamed of it), i 
> find the nazi party rally grounds in the south of Nuremberg one of the 
> most important historic sites of europe for the 20th century. Some of 
> the megalomaniac Speer architecture buildings are still standing there, 
> and one of them contains the Documentation Center, a very good museum 
> about these grounds and the run-up to WWII. For anyone slightly 
> interested in the history of the last century, this is a pretty unique 
> opportunity.
> 
> So, what do you guys think?
> 
> Luc Verhaegen.

Since Alan asked for a resend, here you go. Link to the slides is in the 
above email.

All of the above is still valid, i do not think that much can be added 
at this time, apart from the following perhaps: Germany has a measurable 
amount of community members, who are just one trainride away from 
Nuremberg. The last time there was an X conference in Germany was the 
one egbert organised next to linuxtag 2005, in Karlsruhe. After (by 
then) 7 years, having an X conference in Germany again would be in 
proportion to the number of contributors living in Germany.

Luc Verhaegen.